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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29483988">The River Keeps Running</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhyWhyNot/pseuds/WhyWhyNot'>WhyWhyNot</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Parahumans Series - Wildbow</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-05-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 23:14:14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>89</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>13,196</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29483988</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhyWhyNot/pseuds/WhyWhyNot</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A week before Leviathan attacks Brockton Bay, Armsmaster and the Undersiders are transported to another world together</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Colin Wallis | Armsmaster | Defiant &amp;; Undersiders, Undersiders - Relationship</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>351</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>229</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Rift 1.1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gerbilfriend/gifts">Gerbilfriend</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Rachel</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>They’re running away. She doesn’t like that.</p><p>It feels cowardly. Fleeing, giving up, instead of defending her territory. They’re going to keep coming after her now. </p><p>She wants to keep the dogs safe. She would have stood her ground, but the dogs could have been hurt.</p><p>She couldn’t keep them safe. Not against poison. </p><p>She doesn’t like it.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Now, the heroes are there too. Miss Militia and Armsmaster.</p><p>He hurts Judas. She doesn’t like him.</p><p>He was hurt yesterday. He will be weaker today. Maybe they will hurt him again.</p><p>He tried to take Judas away from her. She hopes they <em>do</em> hurt him.</p><p>The Empire has caught up on them. They’re not running anymore.</p><p>Good.</p><p>Running away might have been better, but it didn’t sit right with her.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Rift 1.2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It’s a bomb.</p><p>There’s a bomb in the church.</p><p>Maybe that’s why the heroes were there. Lisa would know, but she breathed smoke from one of Night’s smoke grenade and she’s coughing too much to talk.</p><p>It looks like the heroes are trying to get the fight away from the bomb.</p><p>She should send the dogs away from it.</p><p>They should all get away from it.</p><p>“There’s a fucking bomb!” she barks at Brian, but he doesn’t hear her, too busy with Fog’s attack to listen to her.</p><p>Krieg does, and retreats.</p><p>And then Taylor dodges one of Rune’s slab of concrete, and it hits the bomb.</p><p>The bomb goes off.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Rift 1.3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Lisa</strong>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  
</p><p>There is a tree.</p><p>The tree has exactly one human arm, and half a leg and face.</p><p>
  <em>Black clothes and cowl. Night.</em>
  <br/>
  <em>Brain fused with wood. Death was instant.</em>
</p><p>Looks like Lisa got lucky there.</p><p>
  <em>Forest, lack of ruins. Spatial localisation has changed.</em>
  <br/>
  <em>Tree species unknown. Not North America. </em>
</p><p>Shit. That’s not good.</p><p>Lisa looks around her. The grass is weird, too, and there’s something wrong with the light, but at least all four of her teammates are there, and they all seem to be alive and not fused with anything.</p><p>Unfortunately, Armsmaster is also there and not fused to a tree, while Rachel’s dogs are conspicuously absent.</p><p>Armsmaster starts getting up from where he was thrown to the ground by whatever happened, but freezes, and Lisa follows his gaze for whatever caused it.</p><p>Part of the sky is white, a towering semi-circle of light painted over the sunset.</p><p><em>Planet has rings. Not Earth.</em>.</p><p>Shit.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Rift 1.4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Lisa</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>“Dorothy, I don’t think this is Kansas,” Regent says.</p><p>Lisa ignores him.</p><p>“What the fuck happened?” Grue asks, and Lisa really wants the answer to this question. She was… Distracted, at the time.</p><p>“A fucking bomb,” Bitch says, and Armsmaster nods.</p><p>“One of Bakuda’s,” he says. “It was missed during the first cleanup. I was going to try to disarm it. I’m unsure of what triggered it.”</p><p>
  <em>Word choice : I vs we. Was going to proceed personally to the disarmament.</em>
  <br/>
  <em>Slightly stiff movements. In pain.</em>
  <br/>
  <em>In pain, Tinker. Not completely healed from encounter with Trainwreck, only in field for lack of better options.</em>
</p><p>“Fucking Rune,” Bitch growls.</p><p>There is a silence.</p><p>“Truce?” Brian suggests. “Until we find a way to go back? Preferably in one piece.” </p><p>Lisa glances at Night’s remains, still encased in the tree. They were very, very lucky.</p><p>“Acceptable,” Armsmaster says.</p><p>Lisa is pretty sure she has a good handle on him, now. She thinks he will hold to the Truce, for now. He’s alone against the five of them, and he’s still hurt. He has nothing to gain by being underhanded. For now.</p><p>She will be ready when that changes.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Rift 1.5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Colin</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>They spend the rest of the day combing through the clearing where they’d landed, looking for remains of the bomb.</p><p>They don’t find any. He’s not surprised. The effect of the bomb was obviously Manton-limited in some way, given the lack of rubble and walls. </p><p>The night comes quickly. The bomb went off early afternoon, and it was <em>late</em> afternoon when they came to. They must have lost time during the transfer, or it might be a simple case of time difference, like with time zone. Who knows how long days are on this planet, or where on it they are.</p><p>At least the air is breathable. It’s… a start.</p><p>Night falls, and they resign to setting camp for the night, lighting a fire on the side of the clearing opposite to Night’s tree, and boiling some water from a nearby spring.</p><p>The Undersiders set up a sleeping schedule, taking turns to keep watch. They don’t suggest he takes one.</p><p>He doesn’t sleep anyway. This isn’t his first Truce, but…</p><p>There is a world of difference between fighting alongside an enemy and sleeping, vulnerable, as one looks on, awake.</p><p>The night will be long.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Rift 1.6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Colin</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Morning comes, and with it, hunger.</p><p>That was to be expected.</p><p>“We need something to eat,” Grue says. </p><p>“Can you tell whether your bugs are toxic to humans?” Colin asks Skitter.</p><p>She freezes, and so do the strange, chittering swarm surrounding her. Colin doesn’t recognize the species, which makes sense.</p><p>“I can tell if they have venom, and extrapolate,” she says.</p><p>Not ideal, but still somewhat safer than trying their luck with fruits or berries.</p><p>“Wait,” Regent says, sounding far too delighted. “Wait. Are you suggesting to willingly eat bugs like some kind of giant spider?”</p><p>“Bugs are very nutruitous,” he says.</p><p>Some of Skitter’s bugs lands near his hand, and he stabs them with a pointy stick to roast them over the fire, before handing the skewer to Skitter. She doesn’t take it.</p><p>“It’s your idea,” she says.</p><p>“Those are your bugs,” he answers.</p><p>She takes the skewer, and he focuses on cooking a second one for himself to give her some privacy as she eats.</p><p>“Armsspider,” Regent says. “Or maybe Spidermaster. Wait. No. <em>Spidey</em>.”</p><p>Colin gives him a bugs skewer.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Rift 1.7</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Taylor</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>They decide to follow the spring until they find civilization or, at least, a good place to settle and for Armsmaster to try to make them a way home.</p><p>Before, though, they take care of Night.</p><p>Taylor kept the bugs, the small, iridescent ones that aren’t quite flies, away, but the day is getting warm, and she thinks the body might be starting to smell.</p><p>Armsmaster cuts the tree trunk with the Halberd, beneath the leg and over the half-face sticking out of the bark, and they bury it in the soft ground besides the spring.</p><p>They don’t bother with a marker or eulogy. It’s still more than she would have given any of them.</p><p>They start walking.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Three days.</p><p>Three days of walking, of awkward silences, or averting gazes while eating and stewing under their masks. Three days, and then Grue finally gives in.</p><p>“We can’t stay like this forever,” he says.</p><p>Armsmaster doesn’t answers, but he does turn toward them.</p><p>“I’ve been wearing this helmet for days, now,” Grue continues. “Same for the rest of us, save Bitch. Now, I trust my teammates, but you…”</p><p>There is a brief twist of guilt in her stomach. She <em>knows</em> she decided against betraying them, in the end, but it <em>was</em> the reason she joined them, and Armsmaster is there and he <em>knows</em> that.</p><p>If he decides to use it against her…</p><p>“I’ll keep to the Truce,” Armsmaster says, but Tattletale shakes her head.</p><p>“Nope,” she says. “Don’t believe you. We want collateral.”</p><p>Armsmaster stays silent for a moment, and just as Taylor starts thinking he will refuse, thinking she will have to spend another day suffocating inside her mask, he takes off his helmet.</p><p>His hair are damp with sweat, and he looks like he needs to sleep for a week, and it makes him look strangely… Human.</p><p>“Colin Wallis,” he says, like a peace offering.</p><p>Taylor takes off her mask.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Rift 1.8</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Taylor</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>They have to stop and waste half a day so that Armsmaster can do some tinkering.</p><p>Nothing that could bring them home, of course. That would be to easy, wouldn’t it? No, he needs to do maintenance on his armor if he wants to still be able to use it. </p><p>Annoying.</p><p>They try to put the forced break to use by bringing fruits, berries and various kind of leaves to Lisa so she can try to see if any of them is edible. Eating bugs isn’t actually that bad, now that she’s gotten over her initial disgust, but they still need to complete their diet if they want to avoid vitamin deficiency.</p><p>Taylor is rumaging through a bush under a tree when she smells the most delicious thing she ever has.</p><p>It’s coming from the flowers on the tree.</p><p>They are really weird flowers. Beautiful, but weird, facing upward, with a crown of black tendrils flowing down between the petals and the stem.</p><p>It smells <em>so good</em>, and Taylor takes a deep breath.</p><p>She’s not sure why she was so worried, really. So tense. The Sun is shining high in the sky, and the white of the planet rings is amazing, and the flowers are so pretty, why wasn’t she smiling?</p><p>The world is beautiful.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Rift 1.9</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Brian</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>“Something is wrong with Taylor,” Lisa says, and Brian is inclined to agree.</p><p>The clearing they stopped in is suddenly… Noisy. Very noisy.</p><p>It’s the bugs. They’re all… Chittering, and moving, without any kind of pattern, and Taylor never did that before. He can’t think of a reason she would.</p><p>“Is this normal behavior from Skitter?” Armsmaster asks, sounding considerably annoyed.</p><p>“No,” answers Brian. “We need to find her.”</p><p>Armsmaster looks even more annoyed, but he picks up his helmet and the Halberd.</p><p>“Let’s get it over with,” he says.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>They find Taylor lying in the grass under a tree, staring at the bugs swirling over her.</p><p>She’s smiling, honest and wide and happy, and if the bugs weird behavior hadn’t been enough, this would convince him that something is <em>wrong</em>.</p><p>“Look how pretty they are !” she says, sounding far too cheerful.</p><p>“I think she’s high,” Lisa says.</p><p>“<em>How?</em>” Brian asks.</p><p>Lisa mulls it over.</p><p>“The flowers,” she says. “Something with their smell.”</p><p>Armsmaster’s helmet can extend to cover his entire face and has air filters, so he goes pick Taylor up, and hands her to Brian.</p><p>“You’re very handsome,” she informs him, and Alec snickers.</p><p>“You’re very nice, too,” Taylor continues. “You’re <em>all</em> very nice. You’re the best friends ever!”</p><p>Brian is painfully aware of Armsmaster’s presence, looking at them. This is going to be murder on their reputation.</p><p>“I love you guys,” Taylor says, and she lets her head falls against his shoulder. “I’m so happy I decided not to betray you.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Rift 1.10</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Brian</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>For a split second, he doesn’t understand.</p><p>
  <em>I’m so happy I decided not to betray you.</em>
</p><p>High or not, that kind of thought doesn’t come from nowhere.</p><p>If she <em>decided</em> not to betray them, it means it’s something she at least considered.</p><p>She told him she was attracted to him. Called them friends. Was it a lie?</p><p>Rachel looks furious. Feral. Alec clenches his fist. Taylor nuzzles deeper against the side of his neck.</p><p>Lisa doesn’t react, and that, more than anything, lets Brian know he’s right.</p><p>“I don’t believe anything she says right now should be taken seriously,” Armsmaster says, and he doesn’t seem surprised either. </p><p><em>Skitter? You, especially, do not want to irritate me anymore tonight, </em> he said at the Fosberg Gallery, as if there were history between them.</p><p>Pieces are falling in place, and Brian doesn’t like the picture they make.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Rift 1.11</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Alec</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The Dork finally passes out, and Lisa confirms she joined them with the intention of selling them out to the hero.</p><p>Lisa also says the Dork was never actually going to go through with it, not really. Says that she was always going to go native.</p><p>She was still planning to betray them.</p><p>Alec is annoyed. He wishes he could be angry. He thinks he should be.</p><p>Rachel is. She’s furious. Brian is more hurt, he thinks. Angry, too, but at Lisa, for not telling.</p><p>Armsmaster is keeping quiet and to the side, Halberd in hand. Alec wonders if he would defend the Dork if they turned against her. She’s the most useful to him right now, with her bug control.</p><p>Rachel and Alec are the most useless, since there aren’t any dogs or human opponents, and Brian and Lisa fall somewhere in the middle. But the Dork brings an easy source of food, range, heavy hitting and recon, and they all know it. They can’t really offer to cast her aside.</p><p>Armsmaster relaxes slightly when it becomes evident that there won’t be a fight.</p><p>In a way, he’s the most valuable here. He’s the only one who has a chance of bringing them home.</p><p>Armsmaster has been careful, so far. He never kept his helmet off long enough for Alec to take control.</p><p>Not that he would have. Not yet. It would be impractical.</p><p>He just wants the option in case it becomes necessary.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Rift 1.12</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Alec</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Brian gives the Dork back to Armsmaster, and they spend the rest of the day walking away from the truth flower tree before setting camp. </p><p>No one sleeps much, and the night is long.</p><p>They sit by the fire in silence, staring at the flames. All of Lisa’s attempts to speak are met with glares from Rachel and Brian, and Armsmaster keeps himself apart with the Dork.</p><p>When she finally awakes, she doesn’t seem to remember what she said, and horror paints her face as she slowly realizes what happened.</p><p>Alec feels no pity.</p><p>Brian refuses to look at her. Rachel bares her teeth.</p><p>Lisa merely looks tired.</p><p>Armsmaster doesn’t do anything. He’s a stranger there, and long gave up on the Dork’s claims of heroism.</p><p>At some point in the night, they must have stopped looking at Rachel, because when the Sun comes up, she isn’t there.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Interlude 1.x - Bène</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Bène is filling her bag with flowers from the palte tree for her brother’s wedding when Natais calls her.</p><p>There are footprints in the riverbank.</p><p>Someone came here recently. </p><p>That’s… Strange. Bène know for a fact it wasn’t someone from Massombe, and there isn’t any other village or traveling road close enough to make coming here worthwhile.</p><p>Bène removes her filtrating mask and kneels to look more closely at the footprints.</p><p>They're different enough to belong to several people. At least three or four, but probably five or six.</p><p>More concerning is their size.</p><p>They’re all… Small. Too small to belong to adults.</p><p>There are <em>children</em> lost in the woods.</p><p>“We need to find them,” Bène tells Natais.</p><p>He agrees.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. Tie 2.1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Taylor</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>They need to find Rachel.</p><p>She could be in danger. Up to now, they haven’t run into any particularly dangerous animals, but they don’t <em>know</em> there aren’t any, and without her dogs, Rachel doesn’t have as much firepower as she is used to.</p><p>Which might not even be her main problem. The episode with the flowers is proof that the local plants can be pretty dangerous.</p><p>What would have happened, had the others not been there? Would Taylor have stayed lying there, smiling, until she died of thirst or got eaten alive? Would she even have stopped smiling then? Or would she have stayed mindlessly happy, unable to worry about her imminent death? </p><p>Taylor really, really doesn’t like drugs.</p><p>They need to find Rachel. It’s Taylor’s fault she ran away.</p><p>They can’t leave her behind.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0015"><h2>15. Tie 2.2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Taylor</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>They go looking for Rachel, to Armsmaster’s exasperation.</p><p>Dick.</p><p>Just because she’s not his teammate and doesn’t currently bring anything to the group means getting her back is a waste of time. They can’t just <em>leave her</em>. </p><p>It’s…</p><p>It’s… Tense.</p><p>They don’t trust her any more.</p><p>Brian and Alec… They don’t trust her.</p><p>Armsmaster… Well. In hindsight, he probably stopped trusting her when she went through with the bank robbery.</p><p>Only Lisa is still on her side.</p><p>Lisa, who knew from the beginning.</p><p>The plan wouldn’t have worked even if she had kept to it, would it?</p><p>Taylor chases away the thought.</p><p>She needs to focus.</p><p>They need to find Rachel.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0016"><h2>16. Tie 2.3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Lisa</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Looking for Rachel is, honestly, easier than it could have been.</p><p>After all, Lisa is there. She might not have much experience with physically tracking people in an alien forest, but her powers is still useful for clues.</p><p>
  <em>Broken twigs. Large animal. </em>
  <br/>
  <em>Broken twigs placed high. Human. </em>
</p><p>“She went this way,” Lisa says.</p><p>She’s taking care of remembering which way they came from so that they will be able to find the spring again. They need the water, and Armsmaster was right. Springs leads to rivers, and rivers are their best bet to find any civilization that might exist.</p><p>They will find Rachel. They have Lisa, and Taylor.</p><p>They just need to get close enough for the bugs to find her.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0017"><h2>17. Tie 2.4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Lisa</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>“I've got her,” Taylor says, and she starts walking in a seemingly random direction.</p><p>Lisa notes with some satisfaction that Taylor’s new trajectory is only at a slight angle from their initial one. She wasn’t far off. </p><p>Rachel, when they finally find her, is roasting a small mammal over a campfire.</p><p>“And here we were,” Alec says, “eating <em>bugs</em> when we could have been eating alien rabbit.”</p><p>“The point wasn’t that we couldn’t have hunted,” Armsmaster points out with a note of exasperation. “The point was that bugs were both more nutritious and easier to procure, and allowed us to waste less time.”</p><p>“Whatever you say, <em>Spidey</em>,” Alec says.</p><p>No one bothers pointing out that Alec ate bugs, too. </p><p>They have more important concerns.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0018"><h2>18. Tie 2.5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Alec</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>It takes Lisa a while to convince Rachel to come back with them.</p><p>She doesn’t trust the Dork anymore. Which is fair really, but somewhat inconvenient. They <em>need</em> Armsmaster, and right now, he’s more likely to stick with the Dork than anyone else, if only for practical reasons.</p><p>It takes a while for Lisa to convince Rachel of it. Even longer to get her to believe she should even care.</p><p>As stubborn as she is, though, Rachel loves her dogs more, and she can’t take care of them without going back, and she can’t go back without Armsmaster.</p><p>It takes a while, but Lisa convinces her.</p><p>The Dork is tense the entire conversation, like she’s trying to hold herself back from intervening. She doesn’t.</p><p>Good.</p><p>It wouldn’t have helped.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0019"><h2>19. Tie 2.6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Alec</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>They have enough water on them for the night, and they decide to set camp there and head back to the spring in the morning. The Dork brings them enough bugs to make skewers to complete the rests of Rachel’s quarry, and they add to it a few fruits Lisa identified as safe. </p><p>Armsmaster takes advantage of the rest to gather the biggest, strongest bones of the animal to try and make himself a variety of small tools for easier tinkering. Lisa looks fascinated by the process, until she gets a headache and go to sleep.</p><p>Alec wonders what her power tells her about Armsmaster’s work.</p><p>It looks like the Dork doesn’t feel like sleeping, either, because she goes and pick up more fruits, staying in sight of them the whole time. She says it’s supplies in case they need it later. </p><p>Alec wonders how long it will take her to realize they don’t have anything to carry them.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0020"><h2>20. Tie 2.7</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Brian</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>He takes the third watch, after Alec and Taylor.</p><p>Halfway through, and Armsmaster is still tinkering, as always, this time with a bunch of twigs and vines.</p><p>It hits Brian, suddenly, that it has been two weeks, and Armsmaster hasn’t slept the full night one single time. This can’t possibly be healthy, unless he’s one of those capes who don’t need sleep.</p><p>He’s not. Not with how he looks whenever he takes off his helmet.</p><p>“You should go to sleep,” Brian says.</p><p>Armsmaster turns toward him.</p><p>“We need you to go home,” Brian continues. “You won’t be able to do anything if you’re too tired to think.”</p><p>Armsmaster doesn’t answer, and doesn’t go to sleep either, and Brian lets it go. </p><p>In the morning, when Brian wakes up, Armsmaster is still asleep.</p><p>Brian will count it as a victory.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0021"><h2>21. Tie 2.8</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Brian</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Armsmaster made a giant basket, and vehemently insists that it’s not a result of his powers.</p><p>“It’s <em>basketry</em>,” he says, “not Tinkertech. Or tech at all, for that matter.”</p><p>“How come you know basketry, Spidey?” asks Alec.</p><p>Armsmaster doesn’t dignify that with an answer. Too bad. Brian is kinda curious about it, too.</p><p>Anyway, they have a basket, now. With straps, to be carried like a backpack.</p><p>They fill the basket with the weird fruits Taylor picked up, and Brian is designated volunteer to carry it. He’s the strongest besides Armsmaster, and the armor won’t fit through the straps. Brian is sure it was on purpose. </p><p>Assholes.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0022"><h2>22. Tie 2.9</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Colin</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Colin has no desire to get involved in the Undersiders’ internal drama. As long as they’re willing to work with him, he doesn’t care whether they hate each other’s guts, or his, for that matter.</p><p>He has to recognize that he was… Surprised, somewhat, to learn that Skitter was actually planning to betray them, and wasn’t merely trying to trick preemptive amnesty out of him. She’s hard to read. He’s not sure his lie detector is entirely reliable where she is concerned.</p><p>She said she wanted to be a hero, but her attacks of the bank and Fosberg Gallery convinced him it had been a lie.</p><p>There is a small twist in his stomach at not having managed to stop her, at having been blinded by his anger, but in the end, she made her own choices.</p><p>He warned her. From the moment she robbed that bank, she was a villain in the eyes of the law.</p><p>She said it herself. In the end, she chose not to betray them.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0023"><h2>23. Tie 2.10</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Colin</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Skitter stops in her track so suddenly Regent runs into her.</p><p>“I think I’ve found people,” she says.</p><p>Colin focuses on her.</p><p>“Humans?” he asks, and she shakes her head.</p><p>“I don’t think so, no,” she says. “They’re humanoid, and they have clothes, but their hair is weird, and they’re about seven or eight feet tall.”</p><p>Well. They already established they aren’t on Earth. It would have been strange if there were <em>humans</em> there. It’s already lucky there are <em>people</em> at all.</p><p>There is no reason to be disappointed, really, and so Colin doesn’t let it show. </p><p>“If they have clothes, they probably come from some kind of settlement,” he says instead.</p><p>A settlement is good. If they can manage a source of income, it will make it easier for him to secure the necessary materials for his tinkering. The most technologically advanced, the better.</p><p>“How many?” Grue asks.</p><p>“Two,” Skitter says.</p><p>Two to six. Even taking the size difference in account, those are good odds if it comes to a fight.</p><p>They decide to go meet them.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0024"><h2>24. Tie 2.11</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Rachel</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The people Taylor found are very tall, and they have spikes on the head, like those weird hedgehogs, how are they called? </p><p>Porcupines. They have porcupine quills instead of hair. </p><p>They look very strong. </p><p>Rachel misses her dogs. She feels all alone, now. The others, Brian, Lisa, and Alec, they have each others, and Taylor is a traitor, and Rachel is on the outside, looking in.</p><p>Rachel doesn’t know how to be part of their group. Doesn’t know how to understand them, or how to be understood. </p><p>Humans are pack animals. They’re not supposed to be alone. She’s not supposed to be alone.</p><p>She doesn’t even have her dogs.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0025"><h2>25. Tie 2.12</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Rachel</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The tall people don’t speak English.</p><p>Armsmaster says that it’s not a language he recognizes with his helmet, and probably not a language that exists on Bet at all. He says it was to be expected.</p><p>Brian says it’s very inconvenient. Alec says their eyes are kind of creepy, with their lack of white. </p><p>Rachel doesn’t mind. A lot of dogs don’t have white in their eyes. </p><p>The tall people decide to try and talk with their hands, and Lisa tries to make sense of it.</p><p>“I think they want us to go with them,” Lisa says.</p><p>She hesitates.</p><p>“I don’t think they mean us any harm,” Lisa says.</p><p>They decide to go with the tall people.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0026"><h2>26. Interlude 2.x - Lain</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Lain</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Bène is back.</p><p>Presumably, she and Natais brought back flowers from the palte tree for the Truthful Night before his wedding next ten-days.</p><p>As excited as he is, Lain has to confess that he’s more concerned with the strange people his sister brought back.</p><p>They’re <em>strange</em>.</p><p>They’re so… They’re so <em>small</em>! He thought they were children, at first, but one of them, the one wearing armor, looks older. Adult.</p><p>Maybe they need to eat more? Lain will cook them something, just in case. It can’t hurt.</p><p>Their size isn’t the only strange thing about them. Their skin is strangely pale, except for one, whose skin is the darkest he’s ever seen. They don’t have quills, just weird hair where they should be. Their eyes have disturbing triangles of white on both sides. Creepy.</p><p>But they’re <em>so small</em>! Like children, whether they are or not. </p><p>It would be wrong not to help them.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0027"><h2>27. Dawn 3.1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Rachel</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The tall people’s village is weird.</p><p>It’s not square.</p><p>The houses are hexagonal, with flat roofs, grouped together by groups of four or five like in a honeycomb.</p><p>Rachel never went anywhere with houses like that.</p><p>The tall people are all tall, but the smaller among them have very colorful spikes, candy apple red and cobalt blue and neon green, and the taller ones have duller ones, grey or brown or black. Maybe it means something? Lisa would know.</p><p>The tall people look at them, and point, and whisper.</p><p>It’s very, very hard not to snap at them.</p><p>She has to go back to her dogs, or she wouldn’t bother trying.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0028"><h2>28. Dawn 3.2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Rachel</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The tallest of the tall people who found them leads them to a house, and talks with one of the smaller tall people, with red spikes and orange eyes.</p><p>The small tall person keeps looking at them, eyes wide. Rachel doesn’t like it.</p><p>The small tall person finally walks to them, and makes a series of gestures and sounds, pointing at himself.</p><p>“His name is Lain,” Lisa says, “I <em>think</em> he’s male and the taller ones are female.” </p><p>Lisa points at each of them one by one while saying their names. The civilian ones, not the cape ones.</p><p>Lain makes a weird little movement with his head, and starts gesturing again, this time pointing at his stomach.</p><p>Rachel thinks it means food, and Lisa says it does. Regent cheers.</p><p>“No more bugs!” he says.</p><p>The food is bugs.</p><p>“Really ?” Regent says, and Armsmaster lets out a brief sound.</p><p>Rachel is fairly sure it was a laugh.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0029"><h2>29. Dawn 3.3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Lisa</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>After they're done eating their bugs, which have the advantages of at least being seasoned, Lain leads them to what, from the outside, appeared to be another house.</p><p>Lisa doesn’t think it is. She thinks each of the hexagonal constructions is a room, and each <em>group</em> of them is a home.</p><p>The room they’re led to has a drain in the floor and a big bucket full of steaming water. Lain puts cleanly folded clothes on a chair, and hands two pieces of cloth to each of them before leaving.</p><p>“He wants us to clean up,” Lisa says. “One cloth to dip into the water, and another do dry up afterwards.”</p><p>There are awkward looks, especially from Brian and Taylor, and it is eventually decided that they will wash one by one while the others look in the opposite direction.</p><p>It feels good. Awkward, because of circumstances, but getting to wash with hot water is worth it, and so is finally wearing <em>clean</em> clothes, even if the shirts are so big they look like shapeless dresses.</p><p>They all look ridiculous.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0030"><h2>30. Dawn 3.4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Lisa</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>After getting dressed up, even Armsmaster doesn’t have the heart to put back his armor until he has had the opportunity to clean it thoroughly.</p><p>By contrast, he looks almost small without it. More human. He’s smaller than Brian, which is admittedly the case of most people. Most human people.</p><p><em>Tense. Wary.</em>.<br/>
<em>Wary. Feels vulnerable.</em><br/>
<em>Wary. Distrustful. </em></p><p>They discuss their truce.</p><p>Armsmaster still needs them or, at least, he needs her. She’s the only one who can reasonably communicate with the natives.</p><p>Armsmaster still needs them, and they still need him, and his willing cooperation. Using Alec’s power to control him would be complicated in the long term, and it might cause division with Taylor, and they really don’t need that.</p><p>They will keep to the truce. They will work together.</p><p>They can do it, Lisa thinks. As wary, as <em>distrustful</em> as Armsmaster is, he still took off his armor.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0031"><h2>31. Dawn 3.5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Brian</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Brian isn’t entirely sure what to do now.</p><p>This place is weird, and he has no way of talking to the locals except through Lisa, which is… Problematic. If only because the amount of time she can use it for is limited.</p><p>Not ideal.</p><p>There’s the issue with Taylor, too. The betrayer.</p><p>The would-be betrayer.</p><p>Lisa should have told them. They should have discussed whether to take the risk as a team.</p><p>Taylor apologized. Asked them to take her back. To keep her. Swore she had changed her mind, she wouldn’t have betrayed them, she was committed now.</p><p>She’s on fucking <em>probation</em>.</p><p>Brian doesn’t know if he will ever trust her again.</p><p>Time will tell.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0032"><h2>32. Dawn 3.6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Brian</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>A few days go by. Bène and Lain allow them to stay in their home, providing both food and shelter. </p><p>They adapt.</p><p>Rachel goes on walk around the village, and tries to learn more about some kind of dog-like species the natives keep. They’re close enough to Earth dogs for her power to work on them, but different enough that she needs to actively learn about them.</p><p>Taylor, as part of her apology, has used bugs and spiders to make adjustments to their new clothes, so that they look a bit less ridiculous, and helps out with the bug farms as a way to repay the village for their hospitality.</p><p>Lisa ensures translation, or at least communication, when absolutely necessary. Brian is trying to learn the local language. To his annoyance, Alec is picking it up much faster than he is.</p><p>Armsmaster has caught up on sleep, and made cleaning his armor his top priority. Brian has to confess that he’s annoyed by it, but can’t really protest. He gets where Armsmaster is coming from.</p><p>Still.</p><p>Aisha needs him. He has to go home.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0033"><h2>33. Dawn 3.6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Colin</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Colin feels much better with his armor back on. It’s not that he doesn’t trust the Undersiders, it’s just that… He doesn’t trust them. Although he has to concede that the fact that they didn’t try anything yet is a point in their favor.</p><p>Still. They’re villains, and Colin did his research. He knows what Regent, what <em>Hijack</em> is capable of. What he <em>did</em>, or at least some of it.</p><p>He feels much, much safer with his armor on.</p><p>Now that it’s done, it’s time to get Tattletale and go to the smith. Get an idea of the technics and materials available. Time to finally work on a way home.</p><p>He’s needed there.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0034"><h2>34. Dawn 3.8</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Colin</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>With Tattletale assistance, Colin manages to get a pretty good idea of the smith’s equipment and materials. </p><p>The smith is… A smith. Which, granted, is more or less what Colin expected. </p><p>Nothing electric, or industrial. No precise tools made for fine work. Very likely little, if any, access to rare earths and precious metals.</p><p>This is not ideal. </p><p>At least, he will have access to basic tools, and processed iron, instead of trying to start from scratch or find and smelt the ores himself. It could be worse. </p><p>It’s not ideal, but it could be worse.</p><p>He needs to see with Tattletale if he can find a way to have access to better tools and materials but either way, one thing is terrifyingly certain.</p><p>It will take him a long time to make a way back home.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0035"><h2>35. Dawn 3.9</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Alec</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Armsmaster is back in armor.</p><p>It was to be expected.</p><p>Oh, well. They had decided to keep to the truce, and he won’t be able to keep his guard up all the time anyway. If taking him over becomes needed, sooner or later, an opportunity will present itself. No need to worry about it.</p><p>If worse comes to worse, Alec doesn’t actually care all that much about getting back to Earth Bet. Brian has his sister, and the Dork has her father, and Rachel has her dogs, but neither Lisa nor him have anything tying them to Brockton Bay. The most inconvenient things will be the bug food and the lack of video games.</p><p>That’s a good thing, because Armsmaster says it will be months at the very least before he can bring them home, assuming he works exclusively on that. Apparently, that’s likely not something he will be able to do, so it will take even longer. </p><p>He’s not going to do it here.</p><p>Apparently, there’s some kind or big town called Capole, and they’re going there.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0036"><h2>36. Dawn 3.10</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Alec</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The good news are, they won’t have to walk to Capole.</p><p>That’s a good thing, because Capole is apparently a pretty long distance away, and Alec is tired of walking. They've done enough of that wandering in the woods.</p><p>So. Not going to walk. Lisa worked her magic, and there’s some kind of vehicle coming by every ten days to transport people to Capole.</p><p>They got blown up onto another planet, and they’re going to take the bus.</p><p>The absurdity of it is great.</p><p>The bad news are, they need to pay for the bus, and with Armsmaster watching them, they can’t just steal money.</p><p>They’re going to need to earn some.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0037"><h2>37. Dawn 3.11</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Taylor</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>She didn’t get kicked out of the team.</p><p>Yet. </p><p>They don’t need her. Not the way they did before, in the wilderness, when she was their best source of food. Lain and Bène would have let them stay even without Taylor helping at the bug farms. </p><p>They allowed her to stay on the team. <em>For now</em>. </p><p>They still don’t trust her, except Lisa. Taylor isn’t sure how to fix it.</p><p>Lisa says they need money for the bus.</p><p>It’s strange. Taking the bus on an alien world.</p><p>Lisa and Alec help her negotiate with the seamstress about producing spider silk. She will make some money that way, enough to pay for the bus and have some left over.</p><p>If she makes herself useful, they will have to let her stay.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0038"><h2>38. Dawn 3.12</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Taylor</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The bus doesn’t look like what Taylor usually has in mind when she thinks of the word ‘bus’. </p><p>It’s not square enough. It’s closer to an old car, but longer, with four pairs of big, wide wheels that stick underneath. It looks almost like a child’s toy.</p><p>“Oh, damn it,” Armsmaster says. He’s chosen not to wear his armor, which composes the majority of their luggage. </p><p>She looks at him in askance.</p><p>“The wheels,” he says. “Given their size and shape, it looks like we’re going to go through some rough patches of the road, and I don’t think that thing will have a very good suspension. I don’t expect we will have a very comfortable journey.”</p><p>Oh.</p><p>Well. That’s inconvenient, but not necessarily a problem.</p><p>There is an awkward silence.</p><p>“They don’t hate you, you know,” Armsmaster says, voice low.</p><p>Taylor turns to look at him, and he jerks his head in the others’ direction.</p><p>“They’re mad,” he says, “but I don’t think they hate you. They will forgive you in time. Except Hellhound, maybe.”</p><p>It might be silly, but when Taylor steps inside the bus, she’s feeling hopeful.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0039"><h2>39. Interlude 3.x - Eone</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Eone</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Eone has been driving buses to and from Capole for the last thirty years.</p><p>She’s not born today. She’s seen some shit.</p><p>She’s seen people, too. A lot of people, and some were pretty strange.</p><p>That’s a first, though.</p><p>Are…</p><p>Are they even menens? They’re so small, and they have fur instead of quills, and something is <em>wrong</em> with their eye, and… </p><p>And she shouldn’t stare. That’s rude, and they probably get enough of that.</p><p>“Where are you going?” she asks them.</p><p>The one with the long, light fur turns towards the others and tell them something in a language Eone doesn’t recognize.</p><p>“Home,” the smallest one says.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0040"><h2>40. Janus 4.1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>
    <em>One year later</em>
  </strong>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>Rachel</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The diens aren’t quite as easy to work with as dogs are, but Rachel is used to it, now.</p><p>She likes the diens. Not as much as dogs, of course, but it’s fine. She’s not <em>alone</em> anymore.</p><p>She has Taylor, and Aise, and the others, and the people at the shelter. It’s… nice.</p><p>She likes it. She likes not being alone.</p><p>She likes working at the shelter, too. Aise doesn’t look people in the eyes or show her teeth all the time, and she makes sure everyone at the shelter treat the diens right, and check on those who get adopted.</p><p>One time, one of the adoptants hurt his diens, and Aise let Rachel punch him in the face.</p><p>Rachel likes Aise, and working at the shelter.</p><p>She likes it here.</p><p>She’s happy.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0041"><h2>41. Janus 4.2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Rachel</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Alec is there.</p><p>He must have gotten very bored, to willingly go on a walk.</p><p>“What do you want?” Rachel asks, and he shrugs.</p><p>“I don’t know. Food?” he says. </p><p>“Can’t,” Rachel says. “I’m busy. Some of the new diens have parasites inside, I have to take care of them.”</p><p>“How long will it takes?” Alec asks.</p><p>She takes the time to think about it. </p><p>“A few hours,” she answers.</p><p>Alec thinks for a moment.</p><p>“Too long,” he decides. “I’m going to go bother the Dork, and then we’ll go eat together.”</p><p>Rachel shrugs.</p><p>“Okay,” she says.</p><p>She goes back to work.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0042"><h2>42. Janus 4.3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Alec</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>None of them has been idle during the past year.</p><p>Spidey is probably the one who kept busiest, if Alec thinks about it. He negociated exchange of scientific theories against access to an equipped workshop/laboratory with the local academics. After realizing they wouldn’t be able to reproduce or maintain his tech themselves, they accepted, and he’s shared his time between working on their way home and having weirdly intense scientific debates ever since.</p><p>Meanwhile, the Undersiders…</p><p>Well. They’re not exactly <em>wanted</em> criminals, but that’s more because they were discreet than because they followed the law. They have a tacit understanding with Spidey and the Dork that they will ignore it as long as they mainly target other criminals and keep property damages to a minimum. Which isn’t very hard without any capes on the other side.</p><p>Honestly, Alec almost misses it, and he knows everyone else does, too, especially Spidey and the Dork. No matter that the latter, like Rachel, found herself a respectable job with the academics, helping them study bugs more in detail and producing silk for clothing and scientific purposes. </p><p>It it weren’t for her father, Alec isn’t sure she would choose to go back.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0043"><h2>43. Janus 4.4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Alec</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>After some nagging, the Dork lets herself be dragged away from her work.</p><p>It’s not like she has <em>fixed hours</em>, just goals to reach every tendays, and she’s already ahead.</p><p>She’s still annoyed, because she’s an overachiever.</p><p>“I told Rachel we’d eat with her,” Alec says.</p><p>The Dork immediately appears more motivated.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>They end up buying food from Rantor. The guy is a good cook, and used enough to them that he doesn’t stare. The Dork isn’t comfortable with people staring at her, and Rachel has her whole thing with eye contact.</p><p>The food is, as always, bugs. Meat is pretty rare in Capole, and very expensive. Cattle isn’t exactly a <em>thing</em>, here.</p><p>It doesn’t mean Alec is ever going to stop annoying Spidey about his sustainment choices when they first arrived, even if the bugs are pretty good when they’re cooked properly.</p><p>It was weird at first, but they got used to it.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0044"><h2>44. Janus 4.5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>Brian</em>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>“Is Rachel there?” Brian asks.</p><p>Aise shakes her head.</p><p>“She left half an hour ago with Alec and Taylor to get lunch. I think they wanted to buy something from Rantor?”</p><p>Great. Rantor is a street vendor. They would have needed to go somewhere else after getting food from him. </p><p>Brian really, really misses cellphones. Instant remote communication. The ability to press a few buttons and just ask wayward friends where they are. Good old times. </p><p>Where would they go to eat afterwards?</p><p>The riverbank, maybe? Honestly, it doesn’t matter that much if he can’t find them. There isn’t an emergency.</p><p>Still.</p><p>Colin and Lisa said they needed to talk to the group.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0045"><h2>45. Janus 4.6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Brian</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Colin is done.</p><p>They didn’t buy a house in Capole. They were never supposed to <em>stay</em>. Instead, Colin and Taylor convinced the academics to let them use some of those student rooms with a communal kitchen. Not a permanent living place, but better than staying in an hotel.</p><p>Lisa and Colin had everyone sit in the kitchen. The wood of the table is a dark shade of pink. </p><p>It’s over. He’s done.</p><p>Colin has finished a machine to open a portal.</p><p>They can go <em>home</em>.</p><p>Aisha. Brian will be able to go back to Aisha. He has to take care of her. There isn’t anyone else who can or will.</p><p>He forgets about her, sometimes. About her very existence. It scares him. What if one day, he doesn’t remember her?</p><p>He needs to get back before it happens.</p><p>Now, he can.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0046"><h2>46. Janus 4.7</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Taylor</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The portal machine Colin made is portable.</p><p>The portal machine Colin made is portative because he absolutely <em>refuses</em> to use it inside Capole.</p><p>“I’m <em>sure</em> it’s safe,” Colin says. “But I’m messing with interdimensional travel <em>and</em> dimensional travel, <em>and</em> it’s only tangentially related to my specialty and there isn’t anyone I can go to to check my work. If I got something wrong and accidentally start a nuclear disaster, I’d rather not have it happen in a <em>heavily populated city</em>.”</p><p>That’s fair.</p><p>“There’s a risk it will end in <em>nuclear disaster</em>?” Brian asks, sounding worried.</p><p>Colin sighs.</p><p>“<em>No</em>” he says. “It won’t. But there are few circumstances in which I will be willing to risk civilian lives, and saving myself a week worth of travel time isn’t one of them.”</p><p>“A week of travel?” Taylor asks.</p><p>“Thereabouts,” Colin answers. “A week of preparatives followed by a week of travel. It’s not that much. We've been here for a year. Two weeks? It’s nothing.”</p><p>“We’ll be home soon.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0047"><h2>47. Janus 4.8</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Taylor</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>It turns out that Colin and Lisa already know where they want to go to open the portal, mostly because the latter spent the last two months determining the safest spot based on things such as wind currents and rivers.</p><p>“Are you <em>sure</em> you’re sure it won’t go nuclear?” insists Brian.</p><p>“<em>Yes</em>,” Colin says, exasperated. “For the hundredth time, <em>yes</em>.”</p><p>Alec peers at the Map.</p><p>“It’s in the middle of nowhere,” he points out.</p><p>Colin looks supremely annoyed.</p><p>“That’s the <em>point</em>,” he says.</p><p>“Yes, but consider,” Alec says. “No beds.”</p><p>Taylor decides to drag him out of the room before Colin gives up on being a responsible adult and decides to throw hands, but her mind isn’t in it.</p><p>Two weeks. Two weeks, and she will be back in Brockton Bay.</p><p>Two weeks, and she will see Dad again.</p><p>She hopes he’s all right.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0048"><h2>48. Janus 4.9</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Colin</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Colin doesn’t have much to take back to Earth Bet, besides his gear and a few clothes. Packing doesn’t take him long.</p><p>When he’s done, he says his goodbyes. It doesn’t take him long either.</p><p>He saves Laude for last.</p><p>Laude is… A friend. He didn’t mean for her to become one, it just kind of happened along the way.</p><p>It’s nice to have someone to talk to who isn’t a teenager.</p><p>“So you’re leaving,” Laude says.</p><p>“Yes,” he says.</p><p>“Why?” she asks.</p><p>Colin doesn’t know what to say to that.</p><p>“You told me about your old world,” Laude says. “You told me it was falling apart. You told me it was getting worse and worse, you told me there were monsters, and the people trying to do good had to sell out more and more of their principles for less and less results. You never told me why you wanted to go back.”</p><p>Colin takes the time to weight his words before answering.</p><p>“… They need me,” he finally says. “I’m not… I wasn’t <em>The</em> best, I’m not going to say I was, but I was <em>one of</em> the best, nationwide, especially when it came to Tinkers, and they need all the help they can get. Before… Before I came here, I was working on a project and I… I’m pretty sure I could have killed an Endbringer with it, saved thousands of lives, hundred of thousands. Maybe millions, in the long term.”</p><p>He hesitates.</p><p>“I <em>could</em> stay,” he says. “I would be useful. I would be <em>great</em>. But I had a team, back in my world, and I have a responsibility. A duty. They need me more than this world does.”</p><p>Colin takes a deep breathe.</p><p>“I love it here,” he says. “Really. But, if I’m completely honest? I miss fighting.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0049"><h2>49. Janus 4.10</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Colin</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Colin’s specialisation means that everything he makes tends to be small. That’s a good thing, because he doesn’t even want to know what size the machine would be otherwise.</p><p>As it is, he won’t be able to carry it on his own. Someone will have to help him, probably Brian or Rachel. He did his best, but it still doesn’t have the most practical shape.</p><p>The first three days, it’s not that bad. They just need to pay a supplement and, well. It’s not like they will be able to make use of this money on Bet. The worse are the frankly terrible seats.</p><p>It becomes more complicated once they start having to go on foot.</p><p>The machine is heavy, and unwieldy. Colin took care of putting wheels at its bottom and it does help somewhat, but as they follow Lisa through smaller and smaller paths, they have to carry it anyway.</p><p>Finally, they reach their destination.</p><p>Night is falling, and Colin looks one last time at the way the sunset paints over the ring in the sky.</p><p>Tomorrow night, he will be home.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0050"><h2>50. Janus 4.11</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Lisa</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Colin opens the machine.</p><p>Colin opens the machine, and Lisa doesn’t want to waste her power on it, but she’s still pretty sure metal shouldn’t be able to fit and fold like that.</p><p>Tinkers. Always doing marvelous, terrible things.</p><p>Colin opens the machine like an uncoiling snake, like an impossible flower, like a foreign galaxy.</p><p><em>Needs sunlight to work</em>, her power says. <em>Will take time to charge</em>. </p><p>Lisa knows the machine is made of metal, of gears and wires and dead things and things that were never alive, but something about it feels almost organic.</p><p>Something about it feels almost <em>alive</em>. </p><p>Colin opens the machine.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0051"><h2>51. Janus 4.12</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Lisa</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The machine forms a circle on the ground.</p><p>The metal is warm, warmer than it should be from just the Sun, making sounds like breathing, or purring. Whatever unholy computer Colin hid inside is overworking. </p><p>Well. He did tell them the passage would fry the machine and render it unusable.</p><p>This will be a one way trip.</p><p>This was <em>always</em> going to be a one way trip.</p><p>Taylor goes first into the circle, then Brian and Rachel, followed by Alec. Colin is turning his armor into a metallic suitcase, and checking on the machine one last time.</p><p>Lisa knows it’s her last chance to change her mind. She can still go back to Capole. Never have to worry about  Coil, or the gangs, or the Protectorate ever again. She can still stay.</p><p>She doesn’t <em>want</em> to. </p><p>Lisa steps into the circle.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0052"><h2>52. Interlude 4.x - Trevor</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Trevor</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>For one single second, bright light comes out of an alley, before fading away as suddenly as it came.</p><p>Capes. That’s the only explanation.</p><p>Trevor tries to think of someone in Brockton Bay who could do that, but he can’t come up with anyone.</p><p>Newcomers, then. At the very least, not someone working for Poltergeist.</p><p>Fuck. She won’t like it. </p><p>Voices are coming from the alley. <em>Voices</em>. Plural.</p><p><em>Fuck</em>.</p><p>Trevor holds his nail bat ready and quietly creeps toward the alley. Maybe he can glean some more information to bring back to Poltergeist.</p><p>There are six people in the alley. Three girls and two boys and a man in his mid-thirties. At their feet, there is a perfect circle of dirt an grass where there should be asphalt. </p><p>Trevor swallows, and leaves before they can notice him.</p><p>Something… Something is wrong.</p><p>One of the boys looks almost exactly like Poltergeist.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0053"><h2>53. Shift 5.1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Rachel</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Colin tells them to close their eyes.</p><p>Rachel is facing the white thing in the sky, the one Lisa and Colin say is a ring.</p><p>It doesn’t <em>look</em> like a ring. Not that she cares.</p><p>Colin tells them to close their eyes. She does.</p><p>She can hear him take a deep breathe.</p><p>“Here goes nothing,” he mutters.</p><p>There’s the click of a pressed button, and for barely an instant, light flares behind Rachel’s eyelid, so bright she could almost believe she opened her eyes.</p><p>The air is warmer, heavier. It smells different, too. Like sea salt and old garbage.</p><p>Rachel opens her eyes, but the light left burning spots behind, and she has to blink several times before being able to see.</p><p>Asphalt. Concrete buildings. Tags. An overturned dumpster.</p><p>It worked.</p><p>They’re back.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0054"><h2>54. Shift 5.2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Rachel</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Once she gets over the first sight of asphalt and concrete, Rachel takes a better look at her surroundings.</p><p>“Are you <em>sure</em> this is Brockton Bay?” Brian asks Colin, with a touch of horror and dread.</p><p>“Yes,” Colin answers. His voice and face are blank, distant, like a doctor’s. Profesional. “I’m sure. This is Brockton Bay.”</p><p>It doesn’t look like Brockton Bay. Brockton Bay was a rotting city, not a broken one.</p><p>Rachel doesn’t recognize the skyline. There are… Holes.</p><p>It doesn’t sound like Brockton Bay, either. Not enough cars, not enough voices. </p><p>They walk to the entrance on the alley, and there are cracks in the asphalt of adjacent street. Deep cracks, old cracks, full of flowers and weeds.</p><p>“He’s right,” Lisa says. “This is… This is Brockton Bay. Something happened.”</p><p>Rachel feels Palte press against her leg, and she pets the dien’s head.</p><p>She hopes her dogs made it all right.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0055"><h2>55. Shift 5.3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Colin</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Something happened.</p><p>Something happened. Something bad. Something <em>terrible</em>.</p><p>Colin looks at the cracked ground, at the collapsed buildings, and he knows, without a doubt, that people died. Many, many people.</p><p>People died, and he <em>didn’t help</em>.</p><p>He wasn’t there. There wasn’t anything he could have done.</p><p>He <em>should</em> have been there. He should have been faster, should have been <em>better</em>, if he had taken less breaks, spent less time exploring Capole and talking to Laude, if he had just…</p><p>They decide to walk toward Downtown, and check out the PRT headquarters. Hopefully, they can find some kind of records there, an inkling as to what happened. </p><p>They find PHQ first, embedded sideaway into the coast like a discarded toy, and Colin feels his stomach twist.</p><p>Assault might have survived that. Dauntless, too, maybe, if he was wearing his gear. But the unpowered staff, Triumph, Samantha, Robin, <em>Hannah</em>…</p><p>Colin isn’t stupid. He… He <em>knew</em>, when he saw the state the city is in, he knew at least part of his team died.</p><p>Still. They are… They were <em>his</em> team. He hopes some of them survived. He hopes at least <em>one</em> of them survived.</p><p>He hopes <em>Hannah</em> survived.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0056"><h2>56. Shift 5.4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Colin</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The PRT Headquarters have been destroyed.</p><p>In front of the ruins, there is an Endbringer fight memorial.</p><p>Leviathan.</p><p>Colin thinks of his modifications to Dragon’s class S threats prediction program, and how many lives could have been saved by an advanced warning, be it by bringing civilians to the shelters or by bringing in more capes and preparing a battle plan.</p><p>Colin thinks of the almost finished nanothorns, of his belief that it could have killed Leviathan, of all the lives it could have saved.</p><p>He’s vaguely aware that the kids are freaking out beside him, Taylor worried about her father and Brian about his sister and Rachel about her dogs, but he can’t muster the strength to react as he forces himself to <em>read the names</em>.</p><p>Aegis is dead. Assault. Samantha. Browbeat. Shadow Stalker. Triumph. Vista.</p><p>She was only twelve.</p><p>Clockblocker’s name isn’t on the memorial. It doesn’t mean he’s still alive, but he survived the battle. He <em>might be</em>.</p><p>Clockblocker’s name isn’t on the memorial. Neither is Dauntless’s. Gallant’s. Kid Win’s. Robin’s. They might be alive.</p><p>Colin runs his fingers against the name.</p><p>Hannah is dead.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0057"><h2>57. Shift 5.5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Taylor</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Leviathan.</p><p>Leviathan attacked Brockton Bay.</p><p>She… Dad…</p><p>An <em>Endbringer</em> came <em>to her city</em>.</p><p>Taylor was worried about Dad, before. She remembered how he took Mom’s death, was scared of how he would take her disappearance. She reassured herself by telling herself he had… Well, not Alan, not the Barnes, not anymore, but Kurt, and Lacey, and other friends, by telling herself they would make sure he would be okay.</p><p>Taylor was worried about Dad, before. Now… </p><p>An Endbringer came here. People always die when they do.</p><p>Besides her, Colin makes a small strangled sound and runs his fingers against a name on the monument.</p><p>She needs to find Dad.</p><p>She needs to be fixed.</p><p>One way or another, Taylor needs to know.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0058"><h2>58. Shift 5.6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Taylor</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>“We need to use the internet,” Taylor decides.</p><p>Everyone look at her. Even Colin slightly turns his head so he can see her from the corner of his eyes.</p><p>His hand stays on the name on the memorial.</p><p>“Internet,” she continues. “To check what happened, and try to… To contact people. Find my Dad, and Colin’s team.”</p><p>“What’s left of it,” Colin says, voice flat.</p><p>“It’s a good idea,” Lisa says.</p><p>“Do we <em>have</em> internet?” Regent asks.</p><p>Taylor turns toward Colin.</p><p>“I don’t know,” he says, and then, “No. Not right now. But I should be able to make something pretty fast, if we secure some kind of shelter.”</p><p>“Right,” Taylor says. “Let’s…”</p><p>“<em>How dare you</em>,” someone hisses with audible fury.</p><p>They’re holding a knife to Brian’s throat.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0059"><h2>59. Shift 5.7</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Brian</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>For a split, surreal second, Brian thinks the person holding a knife to his throat is a clone of himself.</p><p>The instant passes, and he realizes the person holding the knife is far smaller than he is, realizes that person is a she, realizes the face under the cornrows is merely a mask made to look like him.</p><p>Colin grabs the woman by the back of her costume and tears her away from him, and Taylor’s swarm pours in for the adjacent street.</p><p>The woman – no, too young, not a woman, a girl – the girl ignores both of them and keep her attention on him.</p><p>“How do you dare pretend to be him,” she hisses, full of venom and hatred, and it takes Brian one, two, three, three terrible instants before he recognizes her.</p><p>Aisha.</p><p>He <em>forgot her again</em>.</p><p>And she thinks he’s impersonating himself.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0060"><h2>60. Shift 5.8</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Brian</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>“It’s really me, Aisha,” Brian says.</p><p>No reaction besides anger.</p><p>“He’s <em>dead</em>,” she spits out. “He’s been dead for a year, the fucking Empire <em>murdered him</em>, he’s dead, <em>how do you dare!</em>”</p><p>Fuck.</p><p>She thought he was dead.</p><p><em>Of course</em> she thought he was dead. He was gone for a <em>year</em>.</p><p>“When you were ten,” Brian says, “you put a pair of red socks to wash with the white and my favorite shirt turned pink.”</p><p>Aisha tenses.</p><p>“I like plants,” he continues, and starts conjuring his darkness, careful not to cover himself. “I had a lot of them in my apartment. The shelves were grey. You told everyone in your class my favorite dragonball z character was Piccolo. You watched The Darkness in secret for Halloween when you were twelve and barely slept for a week. You got caught in a Fugly Bob’s the first time you ran away.”</p><p>He can’t see Aisha’s face behind her mask. Can’t tell what she’s thinking, can’t tell if she believes him.</p><p>“It’s me, Aisha,” Brian says. “It’s really me.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0061"><h2>61. Shift 5.9</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Lisa</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Lisa knew, before they even reached Capole, that <em>something</em> had happened to Aisha.</p><p>They kept forgetting her, kept forgetting her very existence. Even Taylor, who met her, and Brian, who based his entire career choice around taking care of her. Even herself, with her power. </p><p>Yes, Lisa knew something happened to Aisha. She just wasn’t entirely sure <em>what</em>.</p><p>Something cape-related, that much was sure. The question was, who was the cape? Did they forget Aisha because of something <em>she</em> did, or because of something <em>someone else</em> did to her?</p><p>If her mask is anything to go by, it was the former.</p><p>Aisha is a cape.</p><p>Aisha triggered.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0062"><h2>62. Shift 5.10</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Lisa</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>“What happened, Aisha?” Taylor asks. “What happened to everyone?” </p><p>“Poltergeist,” Aisha says. “Like this, I’m Poltergeist.”</p><p>She sighs.</p><p>“Leviathan attacked on May fifteenth,” Poltergeist says. “It started out as a bad day, and went even worse after it tore a hole through Coil’s base. After the events of the day, the city was written off and evacuated.”</p><p>
  <em>Word choice : events, plural. More than just Leviathan attack.</em>
</p><p>“Most people left,” Poltergeist continues, “went to other cities, tried to build new lives and forget their dead. A few chose to stay, about one or two thousands. I take care of the ones living in the South Docks.”</p><p>Oh.</p><p><em>Oh</em>.</p><p>Leviathan destroyed Brockton Bay, and Aisha took over the ruins.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0063"><h2>63. Shift 5.11</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Alec</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>“I have to say,” says Poltergeist, “I wasn’t expecting you guys to become buddies with Armsmaster of all people.” </p><p>“Armsmaster?” Spidey asks in feigned confusion, like he’s not carrying a bag full of Tinkertech and doesn’t have a collapsed Halberd in his pocket. </p><p>“I’m not stupid,” Poltergeist answers, distinctly unimpressed. “When the Undersiders died – went missing, Armsmaster was reported dead as well, and now they’re back with an adult man in the right age range to be him. It doesn’t take a genius to solve that one.”</p><p>Spidey tilts his head, conceding the point.</p><p>“Necessity makes strange bedfellows,” he says.</p><p>“That it does,” Poltergeist agrees. “That it does.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0064"><h2>64. Shift 5.12</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Alec</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>“What happened?” Lisa asks Poltergeist, and everyone turns toward her. </p><p>“What do you mean?” the Dork says. </p><p>“Leviathan wasn’t everything,” Lisa says. “Something else happened. What was it?”</p><p>Something <em>else</em>? And here Alec thought an Endbringer was enough.</p><p>“Yes,” Poltergeist says. “There was something else.”</p><p>She pauses, as if to gathers her thoughts.</p><p>“There was… Someone in Coil’s base,” Poltergeist says. “Or something, maybe. I’m not entirely sure which it was, at this point. Coil got killed by a stray shot from one of the defending capes and it… She went mad. Started raving about a cure, and killing the defenders.”</p><p>She sighs.</p><p>“It was… I don’t have words for what it was, exactly,” Poltergeist continues. “We were still fighting Leviathan, trying to keep it from destroying the aquifer, and then on top of that there was that thing attacking us, <em>eating</em> us, and we didn’t know what it was, or what it wanted. All we know, we got from the surviving Travellers when things were finally over. Apparently, she was one of them.”</p><p>“They said her name was Noelle,” Poltergeist says. “The PRT called her Echidna.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0065"><h2>65. Interlude 5.x - Aisha</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Aisha</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Aisha isn’t sure how she feels yet, but now isn’t the time to dwell on it.</p><p>Brian is alive.</p><p><em>Brian</em> is <em>alive</em>.</p><p>It’s… It’s too much. It doesn’t make sense. She thought he was dead. She <em>knew</em> he was dead.</p><p><em>That’s how she triggered</em>.</p><p>She can’t… She can’t process that. Not now. Not in public. Not in front of all the Undersiders. Not in front of fucking <em>Armsmaster</em>.</p><p>Better to focus on going through the motions.</p><p>“What did Echidna do, exactly?” Armsmaster asks.</p><p>Armsmaster. He was, or maybe is, pretty high up in the Protectorate, right?</p><p>Did he <em>know</em>?</p><p>“She made clones,” Aisha says, “evil, twisted versions of people who would do and say <em>anything</em> to destroy what the original holds dear.”</p><p>She makes sure to look Armsmaster straight in the eyes, looking for any hint of deceit.</p><p>“She got Alexandria,” Aisha says.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0066"><h2>66. Homecoming 6.1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Lisa</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>“She got Alexandria,” Poltergeist says.</p><p>She’s staring at Colin, dissecting his expression.</p><p>
  <em>She’s looking for something. For how he will react.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Something happened when Echidna got Alexandria. She wants to know what he knew about it. How involved he was.</em>
</p><p>“Her name isn’t on the memorial,” Colin says, slowly, carefully.</p><p>“Oh, she didn’t <em>die</em>,” Poltergeist says. “She got caught, and cloned, and rescued, and the clones were killed, but not before they <em>talked</em>.”</p><p>Colin appears confused. Whatever was up with Alexandria, whatever plot or secret was revealed, he wasn’t aware of it. </p><p>“What’s your <em>point</em>?” he asks.</p><p>Poltergeist relaxes slightly, some of her hostility and wariness melting away.</p><p>“How much do you know about Cauldron?” she asks.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0067"><h2>67. Homecoming 6.2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Lisa</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>According to Poltergeist, most of the people who stayed in Brockton Bay live in the Docks South, and so that is where her lair is. Taylor asks if they can check her house before they go to the lair, and after a time of reflection, Poltergeist agrees.</p><p>The house is trashed. A empty house with broken windows, looted of anything of value, some of the furnitures missing or dismantled for firewood. </p><p>Taylor’s face looks like it was carved in stone.</p><p>They don’t have much hope, but they search through the house anyway, looking for any hint of what happened to Danny Hebert.</p><p>Nothing.</p><p>“He could have left town,” Lisa says, “or he could have gone to live somewhere else in the Docks, somewhere with more people.”</p><p>He could be dead, she doesn’t say.</p><p>The words echo through the silence anyway.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0068"><h2>68. Homecoming 6.3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Taylor</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Poltergeist’s lair is a repurposed Endbringer shelter.</p><p>That’s pretty smart, actually. Those things are <em>designed</em> to be resistant and fit a lot of people. In case of emergency, pretty much everyone who still lives in Brockton Bay could be housed inside one or two of those.</p><p>Poltergeist leads them to a few rooms she kept for herself in the back of the shelter, and pulls off her mask.</p><p>She looks older than the last time Taylor saw her. Harder. More Adult. </p><p>Alex’s stomach growls.</p><p>Aisha serves them food.</p><p>There is meat.</p><p><em>Meat</em>. It’s been a year since the last time she had any.</p><p>It doesn’t erase the awkwardness of the meal, or the churning dread in her stomach.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0069"><h2>69. Homecoming 6.4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Taylor</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>“Are you okay?” Taylor asks Colin.</p><p>It’s a stupid question. Of course he’s not okay. His friends are <em>dead</em>.</p><p>Dad might be dead, too.</p><p>He might not be. She doesn’t know. She has no way to know.</p><p>The uncertainty makes it worse. The wait. She hates it.</p><p>In that, Colin is lucky. At least, he <em>knows</em>. </p><p>“Hannah is dead,” Colin says, “And the people I’ve spent my entire adult life working for have turned out to be corrupt and practice unethical human experimentation.”</p><p>Taylor doesn’t know what to answer. She… She didn’t think the PRT was doing that kind of things, or the Protectorate, or the Triumvirate, but…</p><p>Well. She didn’t expect much of them either.</p><p>She certainly didn’t <em>work</em> for them.</p><p>“I’m fine,” Colin says.</p><p>Taylor is fairly sure it’s a lie.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0070"><h2>70. Homecoming 6.5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Brian</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>“You're alive,” Aisha says.</p><p>“Yes,” Brian says.</p><p>He barely recognizes her.</p><p>She was a <em>kid</em> the last time he saw her. Thirteen. An insolent, provocative <em>child</em>.</p><p>She took over a city.</p><p>A broken one, yes, barely more than ruins, but she rules over it, and people obey her.</p><p>He’s been gone for a year. When he looks at her, it feels like it has been longer.</p><p>“You triggered,” Brian says.</p><p>“Yes,” the boy says. </p><p>The boy is wearing a mask representing the face of a teenage girl. He pulls it off.</p><p>He looks like a slightly younger version of Brian.</p><p>“Aisha missed you,” the boy says.</p><p>“Who is Aisha?” Brian asks.</p><p>“Your sister,” the boy says.</p><p>It doesn’t make any sense.</p><p>“I don’t have a sister,” Brian says.</p><p>Aisha is crying.</p><p>“You’re <em>alive</em>,” she says, voice breaking.</p><p>Brian hugs her.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0071"><h2>71. Homecoming 6.6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Brian</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>“Do you have internet?” Lisa asks.</p><p>Aisha has calmed down, dried her tears, and put her mask back on. Lisa can probably still tell she cried, but Brian doubts any of the others will notice.</p><p>“Yes,” Aisha says. “We managed to get a few generators up and running, mostly for our hospital, but I kept one for internet. I didn’t want us to be completely isolated from the rest of the world.”</p><p>Lisa nods.</p><p>“Good,” she says. “We need to find out what happened to a few people, and it will help.” </p><p>Taylor’s dad. Colin’s teammates and friends, the ones who weren’t on the memorial.</p><p>With a start, Brian realizes he doesn’t know what happened to his father and mother.</p><p>He will have to ask Aisha later. She might know.</p><p><em>She</em> is alive. It’s what matters.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0072"><h2>72. Homecoming 6.7</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Rachel</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>“What about my dogs?” Rachel asks.</p><p>She came back for them.</p><p>For the others, too. Taylor and Lisa and Brian and Alec. Even Colin, a bit. But mostly, she came back for her dogs.</p><p>She had to make sure they were fine.</p><p>“I’m sorry,” Poltergeist says.</p><p>No.</p><p>No.</p><p><em>No</em>. </p><p>She should have known. There was an Endbringer, barely a week after they were sent to the other world. Of course no one bothered bringing them to safety. Of course they <em>died</em>. </p><p>She should have <em>known</em>.</p><p>“I went to look for them,” Poltergeist says. “After Leviathan, I mean. I found your shelter. The dogs, they, they didn’t make it. I’m sorry.”</p><p>Rachel thinks she might start screaming.</p><p>“There was another dog,” Poltergeist adds. “Not in the shelter, but besides it. I thought maybe she was one of those you used to fight the Empire that… That day. I took her in.”</p><p>“Do you want to see her?” Poltergeist asks.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0073"><h2>73. Homecoming 6.8</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Rachel</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Angelica.</p><p>The dog is Angelica.</p><p>Angelica made it. Angelica is <em>alive</em>.</p><p>Angelica licks her face, and all Rachel can think of is how unlikely it was that she would get one of her dogs back. It has been a year. An Endbringer attacked. The city was evacuated. Brian’s little sister took it over.</p><p>Angelica survived all of it.</p><p>People wouldn’t have taken care of stray dogs with everything going on, Rachel knows that. Except Aisha. Aisha did. Aisha saved Angelica.</p><p>Angelica is alive.</p><p>Sirius is dead. Kuro, too. Bullet. Milk. Stumpy. Brutus. Judas. Axel. Ginger.</p><p>Angelica is <em>alive</em>.</p><p>Rachel starts crying.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0074"><h2>74. Homecoming 6.9</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Alec</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>“What about my father?” the Dork asks. “Is he here? Do you know if he… If he survived?”</p><p>She sounds calm, almost detached, but Alec can hear the buzzing, can see the bugs in the room flying erratically, growing more and more and more agitated, betraying her real feelings.</p><p>The Dork isn’t calm. She’s <em>terrified</em>.</p><p>“I don’t know,” Poltergeist says.</p><p>The buzzing grows louder. More menacing.</p><p>“I only met you one time,” Poltergeist continues, “all I know about you is your first name. I don’t know if your father is alive because I don’t even know who your father <em>is</em>.”</p><p>“Danny Hebert,” the Dork says. “His name is Danny Hebert. He was head of hiring at the DAU.”</p><p>Poltergeist thinks for a while before shaking her head.</p><p>“I’m sorry,” she says. “I’ve never heard of him.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0075"><h2>75. Homecoming 6.10</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Alec</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>They divide in two groups.</p><p>Lisa wants to use the computers to try and find out whether the Dork’s father is alive, and his location if he is, while the Dork, unable to stay idle, wants to ask the people who stayed about him. The chances that he’s still in Brockton Bay are slim, but Poltergeist doesn’t necessarily remember the individual names of everyone in her territory. They all agree that leaving either of them alone would be a bad idea, so. Two groups.</p><p>Spidey wants to get news on some of his superhero buddies, and Brian is reluctant to leave his sister’s side so quickly, so they stay with Lisa, while Rachel and Alec himself go with Taylor for an afternoon of walking and talking to strangers.</p><p>Joy.</p><p>Alec feels a flicker of annoyance at the prospect, followed by another directed at the first. </p><p>The Dork is upset. He should be sympathetic.</p><p>Oh, well.</p><p>Better get it over with.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0076"><h2>76. Homecoming 6.11</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Colin</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The first thing Colin does with his internet is to check what happened to Velocity and Dauntless.</p><p>They’re alive. Both of them.</p><p>Colin takes a deep breathe, and feels like a weight was lifted from his shoulders.</p><p>They’re <em>alive</em>.</p><p>Then, he looks up those of the Brockton Bay Wards who survived the Leviathan fight. Kid Win. Gallant. Clockblocker.</p><p>They made it, too, although Gallant left the Wards and is currently working with a cape named Oracle.</p><p>Five survivors. Out of the thirteen Ward and Protectorate capes who were in Brockton Bay when he left, five survived. How many would be alive, had he been there? </p><p>How many could he have saved?</p><p>On the computer beside him, Lisa slumps in relief, and Colin looks at her in askance.</p><p>“Taylor’s father is alive,” she says.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0077"><h2>77. Homecoming 6.12</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Colin</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Colin knows he needs to make a choice.</p><p>He needs to decide what he will <em>do</em> now that they are back. </p><p> </p><p>He always thought the choice would be obvious. That he would go back to the Protectorate, and be done. He knew his career would pretty much be over, but he spent all his adult life in the Protectorate. It’s… It’s <em>important</em> for him. </p><p>Except the Protectorate, the PRT…</p><p>Except Cauldron, and Cauldron capes, and Alexandria is Rebecca Costa-Brown and practiced human experimentation, and Eidolon was in on it, and the very betrayal might not be personal but it burns anyway, and Colin isn’t sure what to do.</p><p>Should he stay? Here, in the city he failed, team up with Poltergeist and try to keep her thousand or so subjects alive and safe? Try to rebuild? </p><p>Should he stick with the Undersider, wherever they end up going? Try to steer them toward heroism, stay with the kids he grew fond of over the past year? Be a villain, in name only? </p><p>Poltergeist doesn’t need him. <em>Brockton Bay</em> doesn’t need him, not really, not anymore, and neither do the Undersiders.</p><p>The Protectorate does, and he knows people inside of it. Velocity and Dauntless. Kid Win and Clockblocker. Chevalier and Dragon. They’re rebuilding themselves, the entire organization is, trying to be good, trying to be <em>better</em>, trying to save the world, and they need all the help they can get.</p><p>For all his doubts and hurt feelings, <em>this is what he came back for</em>.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0078"><h2>78. Interlude 6.x - Joshua</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Joshua</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>When the phone rings, it takes Joshua several seconds to recognize the ring tone.</p><p>It’s his phone. Not his <em>work</em> phone, the one he uses as Chevalier, but his personal one. Joshua’s phone.</p><p>“Hello?” he says.</p><p>“I was afraid your number would have changed,” says a man on the other side of the line, and Joshua freezes, because he <em>knows</em> this voice, and Armsmaster, <em>Colin</em>, has been dead for a year.</p><p>A Tinkertech bomb, they told him, activated by a gang called the Empire 88 during a confrontation.</p><p>Did they lie? Or is the voice just a coincidence?</p><p>“It’s Colin,” the man says. “Armsmaster. I know… I know you’re going to need to check for Stranger effects, and my story is going to sound crazy, but… It’s me. I’m back.”</p><p>The man pauses.</p><p>“I’m sorry it took so long,” he says.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0079"><h2>79. Farewell 7.1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Lisa</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Taylor’s father is alive in New York.</p><p>Good. That’s good.</p><p>
  <em>She’s going to leave.</em>
</p><p>Yes. She is.</p><p>Taylor has changed during the last year. She has grown. They all have.</p><p>Taylor doesn’t <em>need</em> them in the way she used to.</p><p>She will leave. She will go to New York to live with her father.</p><p>The question is, what will the others do? Brian, and Rachel, and Alec, and Colin, what will they do? Where will they go? </p><p>When Taylor opens her mouth to speak, Lisa knows what she will say before the words can come out. </p><p>What will <em>Lisa</em> herself do?</p><p>The world has changed too much for them to go back to what they were.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0080"><h2>80. Farewell 7.2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Lisa</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>“I’m going to go to New York,” Taylor says.</p><p>Lisa knew she would say that. She knew it. She knew it.</p><p>It hurts anyway.</p><p>“So am I,” Colin says. “I’d suggest we travel together, but I’m going to get picked up by the Protectorate in Boston.”</p><p>“You’re going back to the Protectorate?” Brian asks.</p><p>“Yes,” Colin says.</p><p>He doesn’t elaborate. Lisa doesn’t need him to.</p><p>That, too, she expected.</p><p>“I'll come with you,” Taylor says. “To Boston. And then to New York.” </p><p>Colin starts in surprise.</p><p>“Really?” he says. “I was under the impression that you cared little for the Protectorate.” </p><p>“It will be a new beginning,” Taylor says. “For everyone.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0081"><h2>81. Farewell 7.3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Brian</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Brian isn’t surprised Colin is leaving, not really. They got closer to the man during the year they spent in Capole, became something akin to friends, but he has always made clear that he was a <em>hero</em>. That he would go back to being one as soon as they went home.</p><p>They <em>are</em> home, even if it doesn’t feel like it. </p><p>Brian expected Colin to leave. Not Taylor.</p><p>He thought the Undersiders would stay together.</p><p>“I’m staying,” Brian says.</p><p>He still has to take care of Aisha.</p><p>Taylor is leaving. Brian is staying.</p><p>No matter what the others do, there will be a parting of the ways.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0082"><h2>82. Farewell 7.4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>Brian</em>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Brian doesn’t need Lisa’s power to know she’s going to leave.</p><p>Brian isn’t stupid. He knows Lisa pretty well, by now. He knows that between Taylor and the rest of the group, she’d pretty much always chose Taylor.</p><p>Taylor is leaving. Lisa will, too.</p><p>They’re not going back to how they were before they met Taylor. To the four original Undersiders. This is, truly, a parting of the way.</p><p>Things won’t go back to the way they were before. They got home, yes, as they were trying to do, but home isn’t home anymore. </p><p>“I’m leaving, too,” Lisa says.</p><p>Brian didn’t need her power to know she would.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0083"><h2>83. Farewell 7.5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Rachel</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>“You could stay,” Aisha says.</p><p>Rachel doesn’t answer, but she does look at her.</p><p>“It would be useful to have someone like you here,” Aisha continues. “Most streets are too damaged for cars, and we don’t have the ressources to fix them. You could help with emergency transportations.”</p><p>Rachel stays silent, and Aisha keeps speaking.</p><p>“A lot of dogs survived the attack, but got lost or abandoned, or had their owners die,” she says, “so we have a lot of strays. A few people are running a kind of shelter, trying to take care of them and train them. You could help them.”</p><p>Aisha pauses.</p><p>“Just… think about it,” she says.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0084"><h2>84. Farewell 7.6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Rachel</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Staying or leaving.</p><p>Leaving or staying.</p><p>Rachel has to make a choice.</p><p>She could stay. She could take care of the dogs, here, work for Aisha. She might even be able to work at the shelter with other people, the way she did in Capole.</p><p>No crowds, no laws, no heroes. No one would bother her here.</p><p>It would be so, so easy to stay.</p><p>Rachel remembers the last day she spent in Brockton Bay. The day of the bomb.</p><p>She remembers being lonely.</p><p>She remembers being unhappy, remembers wondering why the others weren’t, remembers thinking humans are pack animals.</p><p>The Undersiders are splitting up. Taylor is leaving.</p><p>Taylor is the best friend Rachel ever had.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0085"><h2>85. Farewell 7.7</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Alec</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>So.</p><p>Spidey is leaving for New York City, and the Dork is going with him and starting a new life, and Rachel and Lisa are following the Dork.</p><p>Brian is staying. They’re splitting up. Going separate ways. </p><p>This is the end of the Undersiders as a team, isn’t it?</p><p>The world must think them dead. Dear old Dad probably stopped looking for him, by now. He probably believes him dead in some cape fight gone wrong. </p><p>As long as he doesn’t make waves, he will be safe on that front. </p><p>Alec thinks he’s going to stay.</p><p>No one will look for him here.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0086"><h2>86. Farewell 7.8</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Alec</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Now that everyone know where they’re going, it’s time to outline the logistics of how to actually get there.</p><p>For Brian and himself, it’s not that hard. They’re <em>staying</em>. It’s only a matter of having Brian’s sister find them rooms. Not everyone lives in the shelter full time, so there isn’t much of a problem with that, and Brian even gets to live near his sister. </p><p>For Lisa, Rachel, the Dork and Spidey, it’s a bit more complicated.</p><p>In the end, the plan they come up with is as follow:</p><p>1) Rachel will use her powers on Palte and Angelica, and the four of them will ride them until they reach a functional road.</p><p>2) They will hitch a ride to Boston.</p><p>3) After reaching Boston, they will split up, with Spidey and the Dork surrendering to the local Protectorate and Lisa and Rachel getting to New York on their own.</p><p>They will leave tomorrow.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0087"><h2>87. Farewell 7.9</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Colin</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Why does saying goodbye have to be so awkward?</p><p>Colin is used to goodbyes. He was moved around a lot while on the strike squad, before he was assigned to Brockton Bay.</p><p>It never used to be so hard. Even before… Before he triggered, his life was designed around the ability to just leave any time he wanted. No attaches to hold him back.</p><p>Maybe that’s the problem. He got <em>attached</em>.</p><p>Colin isn’t surprised most of the Undersiders will stay villains. He expected them to.</p><p>Still. Taylor is switching sides, and it looks like Rachel, at least, will try to be more of a Rogue.</p><p>He’s proud of them.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0088"><h2>88. Farewell 7.10</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Colin</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>It’s time.</p><p>The final parting of the way. Lisa hugs Taylor. Rachel insists they pet Palte and Angelica one last time before they go.</p><p>Colin thinks he might miss Palte. Having something warm and soft and unconditionally loving. He'll miss Rachel, too. She grew, during the year he knew her.</p><p>He’s not sure what the Protectorate will do with him, but if he gets put in a stable location, maybe he’ll get himself a pet.</p><p>Rachel and Lisa leaves, and Colin puts a hand on Taylor’s shoulder.</p><p>They stay like that for a few seconds before she pulls away and they start walking toward the PRT building.</p><p>It’s time.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0089"><h2>89. Farewell 7.11</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Taylor</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Taylor will be on probation. It’s inconvenient. </p><p>It’s fair, probably. She <em>was</em> a villain. She <em>did</em> commit crimes. </p><p>It seems so very far away. </p><p>It could be worse, Taylor knows. Had she committed worse crimes or been a villain longer. Had she not disappeared for a year. Had Colin not vouched for her. Had the Protectorate and Wards not bled off heroes after the Echidna revelations. Her probation could have been much more stringent. She could have done jail time. </p><p>Taylor still knows she will chafe. She knows it will be hard, especially at first, as she gets accustomed to the rules and relearns how to live in the United States of America, Earth Bet.</p><p>She still believes it was worth it.</p><p>Or, at the very least, that it will be.</p>
  </div></div>
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